Halloween on Alcatraz
by K3IR
Summary: When Mal and Natara look into the disappearances of guards on Alcatraz island, will they get more than they bargained for? Maltara. Rated T.


**Dedicated to my best friend, **_**cozimbatman.**_

**Happy Halloween! This should be a Nation holiday. **

**This is a very, **_**very**_** long one-shot in honour of Halloween. Because it's awesome and should be a National Holiday, have I already mentioned that? Oops.**

**WARNING: not really a warning, but more of me just trying to get your attention, in the ghost story, about the little girl, it's not real, two guards and three inmates died in the Battle of Alcatraz. The rest were injuries, there was nothing about a little girl dying. I just figured that no one ever mentioned the civilians in the Battle of Alcatraz, so I'm just playing with a random ghost story.**

**Disclaimer: disclaimed.**

* * *

0000

"Nat, no."

"Come on, it'll be interesting, almost two years I've lived in San Francisco, and the only times I've gotten to see Alcatraz is when some sociopath lures us there."

"We're cops. Not ghost hunters."

"Aren't you the least bit curious?" she asks, sitting in front of him on the edge of the coffee table.

"I've been in this city my whole life, you aren't a local until you've heard all the rumours and ghost stories the old folks pass around at the dinner table, hell, my next door neighbour use to be a prison guard there, most retirees around here were. The fact that you want to board a freaking boat at the butt crack of dawn, ride over to the island, just so you can see firsthand the 'ghosts' running around over there, is ridiculous."

"But aren't you curious?" she pushes.

"I am a homicide detective; I don't do missing persons unless they turn up dead. A few guards go missing on the island and suddenly the city's going insane saying that it was the ghosts." He rolls his eyes and gets up off the couch, walking to the kitchen to drop his empty beer bottle in the trash.

"Please?" she sticks out her bottom lip, walking over to him slowly, he doesn't know how she does it, but her eyes are suddenly ten times larger than they should be.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" she smiles innocently.

"You know exactly what you're doing." It's a reflex when her arms drape around his neck that he wraps his hands around her waist.

"Pretty please?" she whispers, leaning in and kissing his neck, his jaw, that spot behind his ear that turns him into putty.

He hates the fact that she's got him wrapped around her little finger when she does this, "I hate it when you do this. It makes me feel like I'll agree to anything."

"So we'll take the case?" her eyes brighten.

"No, we'll _assist_ with the case, there's no need for FBI to get involved, and I am still a homicide detective, I don't have any jurisdiction unless someone turns up dead."

"But we're still going to Alcatraz?" her excitement barely contained.

"Yes, we're going back to that damned prison." He sighs hopelessly; he'll never win an argument with her.

0000

"Aren't you excited?" she's shifting from one foot to the other, trying to keep warm as they wait near the hood of his car for the ferry to come across.

"Ecstatic." He deadpans, one hand seeking warmth inside his jacket pocket, the other clutching a foam coffee cup. He doesn't know how she can look like a kid on Christmas morning. It's too early for him to look happy, or smile, or speak, or be awake. The other people waiting for the ferry are mainly the day shift guards swapping with the nightshift. Alcatraz isn't open today, and apparently won't be open again until the disappearances have ceased.

"You're the cops right?" a young guard greets them, Mal grunts his affirmative, Natara just nods, "are you going to find those men?"

"We're just assisting on the case." Mal informs the man, or boy, he doesn't look like he's hit puberty yet.

"One of those men, who went missing, he's my best friend, when we were kids, we'd talk about how much we wanted to work on the island, we were so excited when we came in for the interviews. He has a wife, and a little girl at home, waiting for the phone call to say that he's been found."

"How long has he been missing?" Mal asks.

"Two weeks now, he was the third to go missing, we were on the nightshift, he kept complaining about the cold, as usual, he wasn't feeling well, didn't look well either, he said he was going to the bathroom, but he didn't come back." The guard informed them.

"Has anyone looked through security tapes?" Natara enquires, shifting closer to the men.

"No, I don't have security clearance, and the guards that do are being tight-lipped about it." He confesses, "Please, find them."

Natara gives the young guard a sad smile and squeezes his upper arm; Mal ignores the two, looking over at the island with disdain.

0000

The morning fog is still heavy as they walk around the island, _at least the suns up now… _he thinks, grimacing at the fact that he should still be sleeping.

They're walking towards the guard tower, the security guard they had met on the mainland showing them the way.

"I'm Matt Walker, sorry I didn't introduce myself before…"pause, "we've had beat cops patrolling around here for months, since the first disappearance." He tells them, turning his head slightly.

"Did you know any of the other guards?" Mal asks, focusing on not tripping over any uneven ground.

"All the guards know each other, the first guard, Jack O'Donnell, he's been around longer than any of us, apparently when he was just a kid, he went down to the docks on the mainland with his dad and watched the ferry come across with the last of the prisoners, he told us that since that day he wanted to row a boat across and see the island for himself." The boy smiles sadly.

"Everyone's heard of Jack O'Donnell, he's like a legend, didn't know he was still kickin'." Mal said absentmindedly, before his eyes widened and he realised his mistake, "Sorry… I guess we really _don't _know this time."

"Heh… Yeah. It's not Jack we're worried about, Jack knows this island like the back of his hand; if he could he'd set up house in one of the old complexes and just live here alone for the rest of his days. He was supposed to retire a couple of years ago, he wouldn't have that though. Alcatraz is that man's life."

"Doesn't he have a wife?"

"Yep, which is exactly why he takes as many shifts as he can, a few of the other guards have met his missus, they say they can't blame the guy for trying to set up shop here."

"What about the other guards?" Natara asks, keeping in time with the guard, leaving Mal trailing behind them.

"Thom Harris, Max Day, L.J Moore and Riker Daniels, Riker only just started working here, he was the second to go, you should've seen him when we were ready to board the boat that afternoon, scared out of his mind, a few of us had to drag him onto the boat, he kept announcing that he quit, trying to escape, we wouldn't let him though, told him to shut up and get on the damn boat before he made us late to work. I told you before it was my best friend who went missing next, L.J Moore, then it was Thom and last but not least, Max." finally they reach the guard tower, Mal was puffing, out of breath, Natara was as energetic and awake as she was a half hour ago, "well, this is it, I hope you guys find the other guards, good luck with the search." And then he was gone.

"He was sweet." Natara smiles, opening the door for Mal and following him inside.

"He was weird, his best friend's missing and he's smiling, not to mention that no one's that chipper at five in the morning." He growls, walking up the flight of stairs towards the top of the tower.

"Some people cope differently, I try and get the job done, you make sarcastic remarks, Blaise never sleeps and Kai makes every inappropriate joke under the sun, apparently, Matt smiles and gets on with his job. And it's seven in the morning, not five." She informs him, and he can almost hear her rolling her eyes.

"Yes, but it was five when we left, it was six thirty before the ferry arrived, and now, here we are, at seven in the morning, looking into an investigation that we weren't read into, or asked to help out with." He mumbles.

"Don't you want to know what's happening on the island? Don't you want to find those missing men?"

"Natara, it's seven in the morning, please don't expect a sincere answer from me."

She rolls her eyes and pushes past him into the surveillance room.

0000

They're met with the head of staff, he looks uninterested at the fact that two of San Francisco's finest are standing right in front of him.

"We could've handled it on our own." He mumbles.

"Hey buddy, believe it or not, I don't want to be here, but she does," he jerks his head towards Natara, "and so you're stuck with us, and we're stuck with you. So you can either let us go through the security tapes and help us _and _your people out, or you can mumble over to your chair over there and leave us alone while we do our job."

The man looks like he's about to argue with Mal before Natara steps in, "sorry, he's not a morning person, the cold makes him mad, could you just show us the security tapes and we'll be out of your hair," she smiles politely at him, apparently her womanly charm or whatever crap she uses works, because the man smiles, shows them to the recordings, tips his hat and leaves.

"How do you do that?" he asks, taking a seat next to her.

"Do what?"

"Make people like you."

"I'm a likeable person."

"No seriously."

"I'm a profiler, it's my job to get inside people's heads and see what they like and don't like."

"He doesn't like me." He states with a frown.

"Yeah well, you don't need to be a profiler to work that out, you also didn't need to snap at him the way you did." She starts typing on the keyboard.

"It's early, my coffee was crap, do you really want to start this conversation with me?"

He doesn't get a reply; she doesn't even look at him, he just gets an annoyed huff.

0000

"Here's something." She announces almost an hour later, he sits up in his chair, looking at the monitor in front of them, "it's dated the night that Thom Harris went missing, see look, there he is, near the docks, it looks like he's calling out to someone, and then the camera glitches and he's gone."

"Wait, replay it." Mal says, watching Natara rewind the tape, "is there any way we can get a different angle or zoom out or something?"

"Mal, I'm good, but I'm not Amy good, we'll send this to the lab, we'll look around for a bit until the next ferry comes in, then we'll head back to the precinct." She hits a few keys, moves the mouse round a bit, then sends the footage off to Amy, "come on, we'll let the guard know he can have his tower back."

0000

They're standing near the old family housing when he hears it, the faint sound of a little girl crying, he looks around, but can't see anything.

"What're you doing?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Can't you hear that?"

"Hear what?" she asks, concerned.

"Nothing…" he mumbles, still looking around.

"Mal?"

"It was nothing." He looks around again, hearing nothing but the chirping of birds.

0000

He's leaning against the ferry railing when he sees her, standing on the edge of the island, her hair half up, half down, wearing a yellow dress, her skin pale. He can barely make out her face, but she looks sad. He refuses to take his eyes off the little girl, squinting as she gets farther and farther away, and when he blinks, she's gone.

"Mal!" Natara calls out, only then he realises that he's leaning halfway over the railing; he looks down at the murky waters of the bay below. She pulls him back towards her, his feet firmly on the deck.

"What the hell were you doing?" she looks at him confused and bewildered.

"Didn't you see her?" he asks, looking back and forth between her and the island.

"See who?" she demands, her voice firm.

"No one." He says, looking back at the island.

"See who, Mal?" she insists, grabbing at his arm to get his attention again.

"No one; didn't see a damn thing" he mumbles before walking away. She looks at Mal's retreating back, and then looks back out towards the island.

0000

When they walk into the lab, they're greeted with bickering that's borderline yelling, Amy's sitting at her station, and Kai's sitting over at his as they yell at each other across the room.

"They're real, I know they're real, and the tape proves that!" Kai bellows, pointing a finger at his computer.

"The tapes prove nothing, Kai, there was probably something up with the camera."

"So there's just an unexplained blob for all four of the disappearances?"

"What's going on?" Mal asks, coming to stand in the middle of the room.

"There's a ghost on the tape and Amy won't admit it!" Kai exclaims, standing up and causing his chair to roll back.

"There's no such thing as ghosts." Natara rolls her eyes, walking over to stand behind Amy.

"Thank you, Natara, see Kai, someone who sees reason." Amy clicks the mouse a few times, bringing up the videos of the missing men, "what Kai's saying is ridiculous, but I'll admit that it's a little weird…"

"_Very_ weird, Amy, it's _very, very_ weird." Kai interrupts.

"Whatever," she dismisses him, "we went through Thom Harris' tape, and noticed that the glitch skipped about fifteen seconds, enough time for him to run into the fog, given that this thing's in black and white, and given how much fog that was surrounding the island at the time, we weren't able to pick him up on any other camera…"

"But, if you'd be so kind as to direct your gaze to the right-hand top corner…"

"Kai..." Amy sighs in frustration.

"Just hear me out," he says standing behind Amy and taking the mouse out her hand, "here, see," he zooms in, "I don't know what it is, but I've checked the rest of the videos, they all glitch at the same time, they all skip fifteen seconds ahead, and there's always that same murky white blob thing, and all four men look like they're trying to call out to it."

"Kai, that's ridiculous." Natara states, rolling her eyes, "There's no way a 'ghost' took these men."

"I knew you would say that, which is why I did some digging… There's a story, well, more of an Urban Legend, about a little girl who died in the Battle of Alcatraz…"

"There was nothing in the reports about it though." Natara looks from Kai back to the computer.

"Because the guards didn't want anyone knowing that there was a civilian casualty," Mal explains, "Everyone's heard of that ghost story, the little girl, Sophia Riley, she was one of the families that lived on the island, she followed her dad out to the front yard when he was called in to help contain the riot, she followed him all the way to the prison without him realising it, there were guns going off everywhere, she was supposedly shot in the neck by a stray bullet. The island was on lockdown, the families on the island were confined to their homes, when the girl's dad got back, he was expecting his little girl to run out from the house, but she didn't. Legend goes; she still roams the island, searching for her dad." Mal finishes, looking down at his feet.

"What happened after that?" Natara's voice was raspy from not talking.

Mal shrugs his shoulders, "I dunno, it's an Urban Legend, there were rumours that the guard continued working on the island until it closed, others say he lost everything, first his little girl, then his wife apparently left him, he couldn't take the loss anymore so he hung himself, when other guards came to check on him when he didn't show up for duty, he was hanging from a raft on the ceiling. A lot of theories and speculation went around after that."

"Is there any way we could find out?" Natara asks.

"There were no records of the Riley's living on the island, the dates are too old and wouldn't have been catalogued onto the computer, if you really wanted to know you'd have to go to the City Hall or Public Library to check public records." Kai informs them, moving back to his computer.

"Like I said before, Nat, we're cops, not ghost hunters, we have men to find." Mal states, walking out of the lab.

0000

"Come in…" The fifth victims' wife, Samantha Day, answers the door, her eyes red rimmed and puffy, "I'm sorry about the mess, I just got home from dropping the kids off from school… They keep asking me where their daddy is…" she sobs, gesturing towards the couch for Natara and Mal to sit, "can I get you anything, coffee or water…?" she trails off.

"No thank you, we're fine, we're just here to ask some questions about your husband, Max Day." Mal says, leaning forward, "do you know of anyone who'd want to harm Max?"

"No, no one," she lets out a small sniff, "is he still alive? I keep calling the prison, and the police working on the case, but no one's telling me anything." She looks at them, eyes pleading.

"We're sorry, Mrs Day, it's an open investigation, we're not allowed to divulge any information…"

She lets out a bitter bark of laughter, "that's what everyone else is telling me. I just want a straight forward answer; I don't know what to tell my kids whenever they ask about Max." she admits, looking down at her hands.

"You tell them that the police are doing everything they can." Mal tells her, before standing up, "If you have any other information, please don't hesitate to contact us." Mal hands her his business card and heads towards the front door.

0000

Four different wives giving them the exact same information, their husbands were good, hardworking men who wouldn't hurt anyone. Riker's mother told them the same thing also, he had no wife, no kids, and he was a hardworking man dedicated to his job. This information was leading them nowhere.

"How about we go back to the island? Walk around and see if we can find anything." Mal suggests, getting into his car parked outside Riker's mother's house.

"We didn't find anything last time." Natara tells him.

"Because we didn't look around last time, it'll be fine, we'll leave with the last ferry." He starts the engine, pulling away from the curb then driving down the street.

They're silent for a while, he can hear the gears in her head turning, she opens her mouth and closes it like a goldfish, wanting to say something but not knowing where to start.

This goes on for about ten more minutes before he gets fed up, "out with it Nat."

"I don't wanna go back on the island before you tell me what happened the last time." She declares, burning holes into the side of his head.

"I told you, it was nothing, I just thought I saw something."

"What'd you _think _you saw then?" she pushes.

"Nat, it was nothing, probably just the early morning light playing tricks." He knows she's about to ask more questions, questions that he really doesn't feel like answering, he's not going to tell her that he heard a little girl crying, and then almost fell overboard trying to see her on top of the cliff. He'll sound insane, "Nat, I promise, it was nothing."

She still doesn't believe him, but at least she lets it go.

0000

They're back on the island, walking through cell block B when he hears it again, the faint sounds of a little girl crying, he looks behind him, Natara's looking into a cell, he looks in front of him and sees her, she's standing about twenty feet away from him, rubbing her eyes and crying.

"Hello?" he calls out, crouching down to her height, "what are you doing here?" she looks up at him, petit face, pale complexion, little yellow sundress, hair half up, half down, she's the little girl he saw standing on top of the cliff before.

"Do you know where my daddy is?" her voice is hollow, with a faint echo.

"Who are you?" he answers her question with a question.

"Sophia…" she answers him.

"Sophia Riley?" he asks, his certain his eyes have gone the size of dinner plates, his heart beats uncontrollably in his chest, he's too young to have a heart attack right? He can't die from fright at this age can he? He doesn't know why, but he silently starts cursing his dad;

"_There are no such things as ghosts' son, jeez, one trip to that damn island and they're already filling your head with crap. They just tell you that to scare you, it's what sells tickets, stop being ridiculous."_

_Nice going old man,_ he thinks, still staring at the little girl in front of him.

"Yeah, Sophia Riley, do you know my daddy? Do you know where he is?" she looks at him.

"No… Sorry." He answers.

She starts crying again, turning away from him and running out of the building.

"Wait!" he calls out after her.

"Mal!" he hears Natara call out behind him. He doesn't stop, just keeps chasing after the little girl, the afternoon sea breeze hits him, he looks around, Sophia Riley nowhere in sight.

"Mal!" Natara calls out again, catching up to him.

"You can't tell me you didn't see her this time?!" he exclaims, trying to catch a breath while looking at his surroundings.

"See _who _Mal?!" she demands irritably, "the same thing you saw this morning when you almost fell overboard?"

"The little girl." He mumbles.

"The little girl?" she asks, "Sophia Riley? You saw her, she's real?"

"If she isn't, I'm admitting myself into a padded room with a nice cosy jacket that lets me hug myself."

She raises an eyebrow at him, before looking around, "come on, we'll head back to the tower and see if we can stay here with the night guards." She says, leading him back towards the watch tower.

0000

The fog settles in over the island as they watch the day shift officers board and the night shift officers get off the last ferry to leave the island.

"You sure you still wanna do this?" he asks, looking over at his partner.

"It's the only way we're going to get any answers, all the disappearances happened on the nightshift." She tells him, keeping her eyes on the different monitors, "You can't see anything with this fog…"

"I'm going down there." He announces, getting out of his chair.

"Wait, what? No, Mal!" she calls after him.

"I'll be fine, if it really is Sophia taking these men, then maybe I can stop her."

"Really, you're going to stop a 67 year old ghost?" she looks at him disbelievingly.

"Yes. Yes I am." He returns, turning around to head out the door.

"Mal…" she calls back.

"What?"

"Be careful…"

"Nat, it's a supposed ghost, and she's only 7."

"I'm not talking about Sophia, I'm talking about you, half of the island's roped off because of unstable ground, just, please be careful, and don't try anything that you'd usually do."

He smiles and walks back over to her, cupping her cheek and giving her a long, tender kiss, "I promise I will try not to fall off the island." Before she can reply, he walks out the door without turning around.

0000

_Well at least I know why they don't give night tours…_ he thinks, shining the flashlight in front of him.

He stops dead in his tracks, if he ever has kids, he hopes to God their not girls, because he might go mental if he hears another little girl crying. He turns around, and that's when he sees her again, rubbing the tears away from her eyes.

"Sophia?"

"It's you again, have you seen my daddy yet?"

His face softens; at least he'll be able to tell people that the tales of the little girl running around the island looking for her dad are true…

"Sophia, were there other men who said they'd help you look for you dad?" Mal asks, taking a small step towards her.

"Yeah! They were real nice, I told them where I last saw him, and they followed me, but they fell…" she tells him, looking sad again.

"What do you mean they fell?"

"It was really foggy, and they kept telling me that they couldn't see anything, I told them that we just had to keep walking a bit more, then there was yelling, and then a splash, I don't know what happened." He doesn't realise it, but he's inching further towards her while she's taking tiny steps backwards.

"Those men, they fell off the docks, and into the water?"

"I think so. Was that my fault? I didn't mean to I swear! I just wanted someone to help me find my daddy." She starts crying again, rubbing the dampness from her eyes.

"Can you remember what happened? The last time you saw your dad?" he can't believe it, he's talking to a ghost. That's it, he's lost it. He's going home and admitting himself.

"The sun was just going down when the emergency phone on the wall started ringing, daddy got his gun and jacket and left, mummy was in the kitchen, she didn't know I'd left the house, I followed him outside, near the big building with the bad men, there was yelling and loud bangs, I lost daddy in the crowd, I went down to the docks where I'd usually catch the ferry to go to school, but there was no one there, then I felt something hit my neck… I don't remember anything after that." Her little eyebrows are knotted together in confusion, her head slightly tilted as she looks at Mal, expecting answers.

He's about to tell her when he hears someone call out to him from behind, he turns around and sees Natara running towards him, "Stop walking forward!" she yells, running to stand next to him.

"What?"

"I was watching from the security feed, the fog, the blur on the tape, Kai was right, she was leading the men out through the fog, they fell off the docks and into the water." She informs him, looking in front of them.

He looks at Sophia in front of him, who's eyeing Natara, "What'd Kai find out?"

"He went looking through the public records at the library, David Riley-"

"That's my daddy!" Sophia exclaims.

Natara stops, looks at Mal, then over to the little girl, then back at Mal, then back at the little girl, "well, now I can throw a big fat 'told you so' at my parents for telling me ghosts didn't exist…"

Sophia just smiles, waving her little hand at her, "do you know what happened to my daddy?"

"Uh…" Natara looks at Mal, asking with her eyes what she's supposed to do.

"It's been sixty seven years… She needs to know." He tells her.

"Oh-kay… Uh, yeah, I know what happened to your daddy," Natara looks back at Mal, who just gives her a reassuring nod, she turns fully to face Sophia, "we finally found papers, of you and your family living on here, on the island… With those papers, we also found your death certificate, you died, May 2nd, 1946, you were seven years old." Natara pauses, taking in the little girls' reaction, when she doesn't say anything, she continues, "your body was found near the docks the next morning when things had calmed down a bit, you were hit with a bullet, in the neck, you bled out… Uh," she clears her throat, willing away the tears that for some reason threaten to spill, "when your daddy found out, he got sad, then he got mad… he started drinking, a lot, so much that some of the other guards didn't think he was able to do his job anymore, your mummy, she left the island, and your daddy. Your daddy killed himself, on September 4th, 1946. Your mummy passed away a few years ago, she started a new family, but she never forgot you, she had more kids, you have two brothers and a sister, she made sure that you were included in their prayers before they went to bed, they know all about you, they have their own kids now, they've made sure that you'll never be forgotten, ever." She smiles sadly at the little girl, who smiles sadly back at them.

"Thank you." Is all she says, before disappearing into the fog.

"Well that was…" Natara starts.

"Weird…" Mal finishes.

"No one's going to believe this."

"Kai might." Mal shrugs, heading back up towards the tower.

"Kai believes in too many things." Natara follows after him, "what about the other guards?"

"We'll send in diver's tomorrow morning, I doubt that they survived the temperatures of the water, they probably froze to death before they drowned.

0000

"_The missing Alcatraz guards were pulled out of the bay by police divers this morning, the bodies of Thom Harris, Max Day, Riker Daniels, L.J Moore and San Francisco's long-time local hero, Jack O'Donnell were found this morning washed up under the docks. Their funerals will be held this Saturday and Alcatraz will re-open at the end of next month…" _the news reporter trails on.

"I've been meaning to ask you, what was so great about Jack O'Donnell?" Natara asks, walking out of the break room with Mal.

"In 1993, Jack was taking the ferry back to the mainland when a guard fell over the railing and into the water, Jack jumped in after him, he revived him on deck. After that he was known as a local hero." He tells her, setting his coffee down on his desk.

"And what about the guard that he saved?"

"When he was asked about what happened, he kept mumbling something about seeing a little girl on the edge of the cliff." Mal smiles mischievously at her.

Natara smiles at him, about to reply, when there's a loud bang from the lab, everyone looks over in the direction, watching as Amy rushes out, covered in soot as she coughs and waves smoke away from her face, "Kai was trying out some magic trick for the Halloween party… All I wanted was a normal lab partner, after Eric, could you not have hired someone a little less…" she points towards Kai, emerging from the lab, "that, could you not have hired someone a little less _that_?"

"Happy Halloween…" Mal mumbles into his coffee.

0000

* * *

**I don't even know.**

**I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I didn't finish it on time, so think of it as a belated Halloween story…**

**Please review, after all your reviews on my other story, I couldn't stop smiling! I loved them so much!**


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